\def\cf{{\it cf.}}
\centerline{\bf\DVI\ to PostScript conversion}
\medskip\noindent
The requirement to convert from \DVI\ format to \PS\ is widespread; both \TeX\
and \PS\ are sufficiently widely used that there exist several packages which
meet this fundamental requirement; the following are just the few of which I
am aware:
\smallskip
\noindent
{\bf DVILASER/PS}: a commercial offering, from ArborText (TextSet, as was).
Runs under (at least) VAX/VMS and MS/PC-DOS. Costs \quid 250 for PC, \quid
750 per machine for `large' VAXes. Supports both \PS\ and \CM\ fonts (uses
{\tt pk} representation for the latter). Supports |\special|, allowing
embedded \PS\ documents. Has been tested with the Linotron 300, using
IBM-PC implementation, using both \PS\ and \CM\ fonts at 300 and 1270\, dpi.
\smallskip
\noindent
{\bf PSDVI \& PSPRINT}: Andrew Trevorrow's {\sc mod\-ula-2} implementation for
VAX/VMS. Supports both \CM\ and \PS\ fonts, and redefines various \TeX\
control sequences to support the latter (for accents and the like). Supports
the inclusion of \PS\ files via |\special|. Available free of charge,
including source. Has been tested with PrintServer-40, Linotron 300 and
LaserWriter at the Open University.
\smallskip
\noindent
{\bf DVI2PS}: Tony Arnold's {\sc pascal} implementation for VAX/VMS. Supports
\CM\ fonts in \GF\ format. Supports embedded \PS\ through the use of
|\special|. Costs \quid 100,
including majority of source, although some routines are supplied only as
object modules. Current status unknown.
\smallskip
\noindent
{\bf DVIALW/PS}: Nelson Beebe's generic C implementation. Available for (at
least) VAX/VMS and Unix. Supports embedded \PS\ through |\special|.
Available free of charge, including source. One of a wide variety of \DVI\
interpreters written by Nelson, based on common code with device-specific
modules.
\smallskip
\noindent
{\bf DVI2PS}: Art Kline's `C' implementation (\cf see next item)
Mark Senn wrote the early versions of this program for the BBN BitGraph.
Stephan Bechtolsheim, Bob Brown, Richard Furuta, James Schaad and Robert
Wells improved it. Norm Hutchinson ported the program to the Sun. Neal
Holtz ported it to the Apollo, and from there to producing \PS\ output.
Stephan Bechtolsheim carried out further improvements.
\smallskip
\noindent
{\bf DVI2PS}: Piet van Oostrum's `C' implementation (\cf previous item)
Mark Senn wrote the early versions of this program for the BBN BitGraph.
Stephan Bechtolsheim, Bob Brown, Richard Furuta, James Schaad and Robert
Wells improved it. Norm Hutchinson ported the program to the Sun. Neal
Holtz ported it to the Apollo, and from there to producing \PS\ output.
Scott Jones added intelligent font substitution. Piet van Oostrum added
support for BSD4.1, the TEXFONTS environment variable, better positioning,
resource (VM) limiting and \PK\ files. Les Carr added the capacity for use
of LaserWriter builtin fonts; Piet van Oostrum merged the last two changes and
rewrote the code for reading \TFM\ files.
\smallskip
\noindent
{\bf DVItoPS}: James Clarke's `C' implementation for MS-DOS and Unix systems.
Supports PK fonts and allows inline \PS. The author states that it should be
easily portable to any machine with a decent C compiler and a reasonable
architecture (\ascii\ and 8-bit bytes are required). It was originally
developed on a MS-DOS machine, and some care was to taken to achieve maximum
efficiency on a 16-bit architecture, by avoiding the use of 32-bit operations
wherever possible. It consequently runs up to 3 times faster than some other
PostScript drivers on MS-DOS machines (the relative speed depends on whether
you are using floppy, hard or RAM disk; it is relatively much faster on RAM
disk). There is much less difference on 32-bit machines.
\bigskip
\noindent
Of these packages, I have used ArborText's DVILASER/PS, Andrew Trevorrow's
PSDVI (albeit an early version), and Tony Arnold's DVI2PS. At the time of
testing, only ArborText's provided the full range of facilities that I needed,
and I have therefore standardised on that version. But note that
Dominik Wujastyk reports considerable success with James Clarke's DVItoPS
program.
\smallskip
\rightline{\sl Philip Taylor}